Tonight was our Baronial Craft Night, and I changed my mind about what I wanted to do tonight: rather than hem anything, I opted to warp up my loom to weave the brocaded band to trim my apron dress. I really needed a break from sewing.
I can see why Elewys of Finchingfeld likes missing hole patterns; they’re MUCH quicker to warp. I was able to get this warped up in maybe an hour. It also helps that the warp is maybe 45 inches long.
After I got the cards warped, I wove a couple of inches of just plain all-forward picks, to create the tab that I’ll sew around the straps of my dress.
I wasn’t planning on doing any of the actual weaving tonight, but I decided to give it a whirl, as warping took a lot less time than expected, and I’m really glad I did. I decided that I didn’t care for the lighter yellow wool I have from Timeless Textiles, so I grabbed my cone of Madeira Burmilana in color 3855 (Brown Gold), and opted to use two strands to see how the coverage looked.
I wove some more plain weave to space the motifs apart, about half an inch, and about halfway through that I decided to untwist the border cards, so I reversed them.
And because I can’t resist these things, I did one more motif, this time in color 3810 (discontinued… bummer) in the Burmilana. I cut the length of thread a bit shorter than I did the gold, and I barely had enough to finish. I thread a dull tapestry needle to work the brocade pick, and I had to cut the thread off the needle and make the last couple of passes with my fingers. It was not a conservation thing, it was just too short. The motif came out cute, though, and I’m really considering doing more brocading. Once you get the hang, it’s lots of fun, and I have a couple of great sources for patterns.
That’s all I’m going to do tonight. Those two motifs are about 3” together, including the spaces between, so I actually think that I could get this done tomorrow night, since I only need about eight visible inches. I honestly though it would take longer, but I’m glad it’s going quickly. Given how much time I lost to excruciating pain over this past weekend, I need all the acceleration I can get. (My pain is getting better; thanks for asking.)
I put all the patterns for the motifs I want to use into GoodNotes on my iPad, and marked the numbers of the threads that the brocade weft passes over. Then I used the highlighter feature to mark off the completed picks, because the eraser has an option to erase highlighter only, and it works well for me to weave these patterns.
So I’m really happy with my work tonight. I have learned a new thing, I like doing the new thing, and I’m going to have a pretty bit of trim for my new dress. I can go to bed knowing I’ve made progress. And I shall.
Night, y’all.
